Total World Fossil Fuel CO2 Emissions Hit All-Time High In 2011; 31.6 Gigatons; Up 3.2% YOY

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON -- Emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide reached an all-time high last year, further reducing the chances that the world can avoid a dangerous rise in global average temperature by 2020, according to the International Energy Agency, the energy analysis group for the world's most industrialized states.

Global emissions of carbon dioxide, or CO2, from fossil-fuel combustion hit a record high of 31.6 gigatonnes in 2011, according to the IEA's preliminary estimates, an increase of 1 Gt, or 3.2 percent, from 2010. The burning of coal accounted for 45 percent of total energy-related CO2 emissions in 2011, followed by oil (35 percent) and natural gas (20 percent).

According to the vast majority of climatologists, the rapid rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of industrialization over the last 150 years has led to an increase in global average temperature by about 1 degree Celsius.

Scientists and the IEA contend that countries need to keep the global average temperature from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in order to avoid profound damage to life on Earth, from water and food scarcity to rising sea levels to greater incidence and severity of disease.

EDIT

http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2012/05/record_co2_emissions_intensify.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. The time to worry

will be when China's 60 year figure, for the past 60 years, exceeds that of the USA over the same period. Until then the US should maybe stay quiet on this subject.

Conventionally refered to "people in glass houses........"

[GliderGuider]

2. The time to worry

was 1970, but for different reasons. The biosphere doesn't play politics.